A Loophole In The Law
by PJ Blindclown
Summary: When Lief and Jasmine set out to ask Deltora's maidens to give their hair willingly, they thought that all would be well once they had been persuaded. But they soon find out that this is not the case. Sequel to The Colour Of The Night.


(A/N.) This story is rated M for a reason. It contains content that might not be easy for some to read. I will not be offended if you stop right here.

Disclaimer: I don't own Deltora Quest. That is owned by Emily Rodda. I did however, create the other characters found here.

It was early in the morning, but already the late summer air was hot. Jasmine had only spent a few summers in Del, and every time, she wondered just how the citizens survived the heat, which was exacerbated by the fact that there were less trees within the city, and those that were left were now being cut down, having died during the long years of neglect. Lief had ordered the planting of their replacements, and those orders were being carried out along with the removal of the dead and dying trees, but Jasmine found herself wondering just how the new ones would grow. In fact, Jasmine wondered, (not aloud of course) how anything could grow in this stifling city. Usually, she would put such thoughts out of her mind. But lately, she had been finding that more difficult to do. Things were different now.

According to Zeean, Sharn, and a healer from the city whom Sharn had known during the time of the shadow lord, Jasmine had been with child for about three months now. The child would not be born until late in the winter, but all the same, Jasmine felt nervous about the situation.

On one hand, Jasmine was thrilled that she and Lief had somehow been able to create another human life, simply by loving one another. But on the other hand, she knew that it would take a long time for Deltora to truly heal, after the years of damage and neglect which had been brought about by the shadow lord's tyranny. Jasmine worried about bringing a child into such a world, especially a child who would one day be responsible for ensuring that the land and its people continued to heal.

But just now, Jasmine was thinking of none of this. She was in the bird room of the palace, training the young man who would be the new keeper of all the messenger birds. His round face was still that of a child, and framed by golden curls; which made him look even younger. Jasmine found herself wondering where in the world Lief had found him. The way he blushed and stammered as she showed him how to feed the birds, change the straw that carpeted the floor and fill the water trough was making her feel more than a little uncomfortable.

"That is Kree, is it not?" The boy breathed, obviously awestruck at the sight of Kree sitting on his perch and preening his feathers.

"Yes, that is Kree," Jasmine replied, grateful that the boy's attention was no longer on her.

One of the boy's soft hands reached out and gently stroked Kree's feathers. Jasmine felt a little nervous. It would be a disaster if Kree were to bite this young man, who was to care for all the other birds she had trained. But Kree seemed quite content to let the boy stroke him.

"You killed the sorceress Theagan, didn't you Kree?" The boy was crooning. "I think you're brilliant!"

Kree clucked with pleasure. Jasmine no longer felt nervous. That was, until the boy looked up at her.

"You trained all these birds, didn't you?" He asked breathlessly.

"Yes," Jasmine answered.

"You're so talented," The boy gushed, his voice cracking slightly. Jasmine suddenly felt worried that he might faint right there in front of her. Of all the things she had expected when Lief had told her that she would be training the man he had found for the bird keeper's job, a mere child who appeared to be experiencing a puppy love for her was not one of them.

Thankfully, a few moments later, Lief arrived in the bird room. 'Perhaps he can explain his choice,' Jasmine thought to herself as he entered. But instead, he held out a parchment.

"You forgot this," Lief said, handing it to her.

As she took the parchment, Jasmine saw that it contained the details that had been recorded when the young man had applied for the bird keeper's job. Realising that there was far too much information for her to read quickly, Jasmine handed the parchment back to Lief, who seemed to have realised his mistake. Without a word, he began to read what was written there.

"You are Harlan of Del?" Lief asked, looking up at the boy. So that was his name. Jasmine wondered if the boy thought her rude because she had not asked him his name when they met. But by the look in his eyes, "Harlan of Del" did not seem to care at all.

"Yes sir," He answered Lief.

"And you are fourteen years of age?" Lief continued. Jasmine gasped. What did Lief think he was doing, considering a child for such a demanding job? Unfortunately, the boy noticed her shock and turned to her, the adoring look gone from his eyes.

"You don't think I can do this," he accused.

"I did not mean…" Jasmine tried to defend herself. But it seemed that Harlan was not finished.

"If you did not trust me with your birds, then why did you bother training me?"

Jasmine could not help but notice that the look of anger on the boy's good natured face did not look as though it belonged there. But still, he continued rambling, his voice rising to a high pitched shout.

"I'll have you know that I have been raising goats and chickens since I could walk, and training dogs for nearly as long! I have the experience to do this job, and I can do it as well as anyone older than me! You told me just moments ago that I could do this job, just like you told my sister that one day she would ride upon a dragon."

Harlan stopped for a moment, and seemed to calm a little. Then he said, in a much softer voice, "Soon, you'll become known among the people as "the queen who lied to children." What will you do then?"

"What do you mean?" Lief asked, immediately coming to Jasmine's defence.

Jasmine noticed that the look on Harlan's face was no longer angry, but sad; and when he next spoke, his voice trembled a little.

"My sister will never ride upon a dragon," he told Jasmine. "You know it, and I know it. But what you don't know, is that she will never again cut off her hair to give to one."

There were tears in the boy's blue eyes now, and he had spoken his last words as though his sister no longer being able to cut off her hair was a terrible tragedy. It was Lief who broke the long silence that followed.

"Why ever not, Harlan?" He asked gently. "The rules state that she can come back and do it again in two years' time."

"No, she can't," Harlan replied.

"Perhaps, you could tell us why not?" Lief tried again. The boy looked down at his shoes.

"They said if we told anyone, they'd kill us," he whispered. "And besides, it is not polite to talk of such things in front of a woman, my Father says so."

Lief and Jasmine looked at one another, neither of them sure what to make of what they had heard so far. By the sound of it, the boy and his sister were being forced to keep a terrible secret, and had even been threatened with death if it was revealed to anyone. But Lief was thinking of the other things that the boy had said, about not being able to speak of it in front of a woman. For some reason, those words made him feel uneasy.

"We have finished our training, Lief," Jasmine said finally. "Congratulations Harlan, you've got the job."

But the boy did not smile, nor did he even look up. He only muttered a soft, "Thank you," as Jasmine left the room.

In the days to come, Lief would be haunted by the memory of what happened next, and would spend many a sleepless night wondering if he and Jasmine had done the right thing in asking Deltora's maidens to give their hair. Harlan burst into tears, and Lief gave him a moment to collect himself before he asked, "Harlan, why can your sister not give her hair again?"

Harlan took a long time to answer, and when he did, Lief found himself unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Because she is no longer a maiden, Sir," He said. "They got her a few days after she cut her hair off, on the day before her birthday."

Lief felt the blood drain from his face. Of all the things he had expected to hear, it had not been this.

"Who was she?" Lief asked. "Your sister, I mean. Perhaps you could describe her to me. If she gave her hair with all the other girls that day, then surely I must have met her."

"You did," Harlan said. "She talked about it for days. How the Queen told her that the dragon would find her when she cut off her hair and let her ride upon it. Her name is Heatherbell."

Lief was ashamed to realise that the name meant nothing to him. He and Jasmine had seen many girls that day, and he still could not quite place her. Then, he remembered. Heatherbell had been the smallest girl there, and Lief remembered how he had asked Jasmine if it was right to cut the hair off one who looked so young. But when Lief had taken the girl's details, she had told him she was twelve years old, and that had been the end of it. Lief also remembered Jasmine telling him that the girl would have more magic in her than all the others.

"I remember her," Lief said softly. "She was the smallest girl who came to us that day."

Harlan nodded. "She lied about her age," he said. "She said that she was twelve, but really she was only eleven. Our Mother told her to wait a year, she would be twelve then, and the right age. But it was only a week until Heatherbell's birthday, and she got all upset and cried about how unfair it was, and how a week wouldn't make that much difference, so Mother let her go. Now I wish that she had not. I said that I would go with her, just in case she was not allowed to give her hair, but Heatherbell would not let me. She said that she was not a baby, and didn't need me going with her everywhere she went, so I stayed at home and tended the goats while she was gone. When she got back, she was happy, and her hair was very short, even shorter than mine. I asked her how she had done it, and she told me she had lied about her age."

Harlan stopped there, looking guilty.

"Heatherbell will not be in trouble for that," Lief said quickly. "I remember, we were very impressed with her that day. What happened later? You say that she is no longer a maiden. But how can that be? She was only eleven years old."

"I told you, they got her," Harlan said, his eyes filling with tears again. "I was there, I saw the whole thing."

Harlan stopped again, too upset to speak. But Lief had to know more. If this was as bad as he was beginning to suspect, whoever had done this had to pay. The memory of the little girl's face when Jasmine had told her that she might one day ride upon a dragon was now fresh in his mind, and it would not leave him.

"Who were they?" Lief asked. "And what did they do to Heatherbell? Harlan, you must tell me everything. I promise, no harm will come to you if you do. You work at the palace now, and that means you have protection."

"But what about Heatherbell?" Harlan asked. "She doesn't work here…"

"We will find a way to protect your entire family if it comes to that," Lief interrupted quickly. "Go on, tell me what happened. I cannot do anything about it if I do not know all the details, as bad as they might be."

Again, Harlan took a short while to collect himself. Then, he began to speak, looking straight at Lief as he did so.

"It was early in the evening," He began. "Heatherbell and I had been sent to buy a bale of hay from the market, and we were carrying it home between us. We had no dog with us, which is unusual, but we decided to leave him at home because we would have no free hands to hold the lead. We live just outside of Del, on one of the farms there. When we got to the area where the city ends and the farms begin, we saw them. There were about five or six of them, sitting on the grass under a tree and drinking ale from a barrel, dipping their mugs into it. We knew it was ale because we could smell it on the wind, and the way they were talking made us realise that they had probably been drinking it all day. As we got closer, we realised that there was no way to get around them, and that there were ale barrels and rubbish everywhere. The place was a mess."

Again, Harlan stopped for a moment. Lief realised that this was the part of the story that the boy was dreading, and Lief was dreading it also. But Harlan straightened his shoulders once more, and continued.

"When they saw us, they started shouting. "Dragon girl, traitor!" I think they recognised that Heatherbell was one of them because of her hair. We started moving a little faster, to try and get past them, when we realised they were not the friendly sort of drunks. But when we got right near them, one of them put his leg out, and I tripped. Heatherbell, the hay and me all went down. I think it was then that I counted them, there were six. I also figured out that they were not much older than me, by their voices. We tried to get back up and keep going, but two of them got on top of me and held me down, and the others grabbed Heatherbell, pulling her toward the tree. I shouted at them to let her go, but they just laughed at me. "If she wanted to be one of them, she should've chosen a better man." One of them said, still laughing. "I am not her man, I'm her brother!" I shouted back. Now, I was really scared. The two that had me started patting me down, and I tried to fight them off. Then one pulled out a knife, so I stopped. Now, I wish I'd fought harder, but I had no weapon, and they knew it. That was why they were patting me, they were looking for one I think."

"You did what you could, Harlan," Lief said gently. "I cannot tell you how impressed I am with your bravery. I would make you one of my guards if you were not already the keeper of the birds."

Harlan smiled without humour. "I wouldn't make a very good palace guard," He said. "I could not even protect my own sister, so how could I protect the royal family?"

"I could argue that," Lief said. "But I will not. Please continue with your story."

Harlan did as he was asked, still with that mirthless smile on his smooth face.

"The knife was huge," he went on. "It was one of those knives that my Father uses when slaughtering animals, so I knew they were farmers too. Or at least, they were before the drought came. I looked over at the tree, where the others had Heatherbell. One of them had her pushed up against the tree, and another had another one of those huge knives, and was pointing it right at her, but she was still fighting. Then, I saw a third one lift up her dress. "We'll teach this one a lesson," he said. "She won't be feeding the King's nonsense no more, she'll be a good farmer's girl like the rest of us." I shouted at them again to let her go, I was so scared now that I was shaking. Then, the one who lifted her dress, he… He…"

Lief put up his hand to stop the boy. Despite his own plea for all the details, he did not think he could hear anymore. He thought he already knew what the boy was going to tell him, and already he had heard enough. Lief himself had once witnessed a girl being harmed in a similar way, and the memory of that incident still gave him nightmares. He had never told Jasmine what Laughing Jack and the crew of The Lady Luck had done to Verity of the lighthouse, once they had tied her to that pole. He did not think that Barda would have spoken of it either. The memory, even for them, was just too painful. Lief could only imagine what it must be like for Red Han, knowing that that had happened to his own daughter, while he had been forced to watch from the light chamber.

But Harlan it seemed, was just as brave as Red Han had been. He set his jaw, took a few deep breaths, and finished his terrible story.

"He took her by force," he whispered. "She was screaming and crying, and there was nothing I could do. I started to scream too, and one of them pushed my face into the dirt. But I could see out of the corner of my eye that the others were closing in. After the first one had finished, the next three did the same. Then the two that had me let me go. I know I should have run for help then, but I was too scared to move, and I felt like I might be sick if I tried to lift my head. I knew what the others were going to do, so I looked away. I couldn't watch anymore. Then, after a while, one of them came over, with his trousers still halfway down, and threw Heatherbell down next to me. I took a good look at her, and saw that her dress was torn, and her face had bruises all over it. Then, the lot of them just ran away, laughing. After a few moments, I tried to get Heatherbell to move so we could go home, but she told me she could not walk, and to go on without her. So I did."

Once again, Harlan began to cry. Lief wondered how much he had cried before now, and how much he was to cry yet.

"You are very brave, Harlan," Lief said, feeling as though there was nothing else he could say to comfort the boy.

"I went back for her," He sobbed. "After my parents and all the little ones had gone to bed, I went back, and she was gone. I haven't seen her since."

Many hours later, Lief and Jasmine sat together at the forge. Jasmine was still trying to teach herself to read, but Lief could only stare into the fire. Finally, Jasmine spoke.

"What did the boy Harlan tell you after I left?" She asked.

Lief took a long moment to reply. He understood now why Harlan had not wanted Jasmine to hear what he had said, it was indeed not polite to speak of such things in the presence of a woman. But Lief knew that manners would not excuse him from having to tell Jasmine. She was his wife, and he knew that Jasmine would not let him sleep tonight unless she had been told everything. Not that he felt like sleeping in any case. But he did not know just how he would explain this to Jasmine, who was still not completely aware of some of the ways in which humans behaved.

"He said that his sister was no longer a maiden," Lief said at last. "She was taken by force, and apparently the criminals held him down while they did this. He said there were six of them."

"And do you believe him?" Jasmine asked in shock.

"Of course I believe him," Lief answered her. "He cried at least three times as he told me of it. We might be the only ones who know of this. Harlan also believes his sister may have run away, either that or the criminals got to her before he could. He told me she was gone when he went back for her later that night."

Jasmine stared at Lief, and he realised that she must be feeling the same as he did when he first heard Harlan's story.

"I know it is hard to believe, Jasmine," Lief said. "But I am quite sure now that it is true. His sister was that little girl, Heatherbell was her name. She was the one you said would ride upon a dragon. Do you remember?"

"I remember her," Jasmine murmured. "But how could someone do something like that? Why would they?"

"I do not know," Lief answered. "I just do not know." Despite all he had just told her, Lief still could not bring himself to tell Jasmine about Verity. He did not know how he would tell her that there were others in this world who thought that this way to harm another person was acceptable. Especially now that in a few months, they would be bringing a child into it.

That night, Lief and Jasmine both slept little, both consumed by the new and terrible knowledge that had just been bestowed upon them. The next morning, Jasmine woke early as usual. Deciding that no more sleep would be had this night, she went straight up to the bird room of the palace, where strangely enough, she found Harlan, laying asleep among the straw. The boy awoke as soon as he heard her enter, and immediately set about brushing the straw from his clothes.

"Good morning," Jasmine greeted him. "You're here early."

"I've been here all night," Harlan replied, still brushing at his clothes. "I know that most of these birds are just babies, because most of the others got poisoned in the night, when the old keeper wasn't there. I heard that he got killed too. Did that really happen?"

Jasmine did not know what to say to this boy, who she now knew had endured so much, partly because of her.

"Yes, he was killed," she finally told him, deciding that he was intelligent enough to see through a lie.

"That will not happen to me," Harlan said, looking at her with seriousness in his eyes that she had not seen there before. "I will keep all these birds safe. I could not protect Heatherbell, but I can protect your birds. I swear it on my life."

"I believe you," Jasmine said softly. She now wondered whether it was the birds who needed to be kept safe, or Harlan himself. Perhaps both. Perhaps sleeping here, among creatures who he knew would not harm him, with palace guards outside the door, would keep the death that those men had promised him if he told his secret away, if only for a night.

Again, Jasmine thought of the child growing within her, and worried about bringing any child into a world where children could not even rely on other humans to keep them safe from threats made by drunken, angry men. A world where little girls would now not be able to cut off their hair, for fear of having the childhood that made them so magical destroyed in the worst way possible. All Jasmine could do at that moment, was hope that the child growing within her would not be a daughter.


End file.
